What is Alt-Jpop? Interview with Antonio Vázquez

Theresa: Antonio, how are you?

Antonio: Great, feeling great because my life has changed.

How come?

Passing through a new artistic muse. I have a new vision in music, it makes me full of love. I have started a new project called Alt-Jpop, it is a departure of my "Avant"/Noise phase. I have grown up and now I'm mature enough to be true to myself. Alt-Jpop is about truth, the truth of the beauty of the beat and collaboration. Alt-Jpop celebrates the artistic beauty of forgotten artists, but this doesn't have to do with lesser known artists, this includes famous people too, everybody has a hidden artistic vision. SOPHIE makes this clear in one of her recent interviews "Experimental Music isn't really experimental",  I felt the same as her when I was exposed to this "avant" scene, I was emotionally exhausted, Socially Isolated, unemployed, I was depressed and disappointed, I lived a life full of poverty of the soul but now I feel vitality, I feel power, I feel admiration to all the lost gems.

What is your approach regarding Jpop?

If I'm completely honest, I don't offer a new approach, that would be too pretentious and idealist. I see Alt-Jpop as a loyalty to the process or in other words loyalty to the idea of Jpop, it is conservative regarding the concept of Jpop, I see myself almost as maintenance, I'm just an employee who does its assigned duty, unemployed or not, everybody has a duty in life. SOPHIE has always been one of my role models at beatmaking but not because of her sound but because of her point of departure. I was struck when SOPHIE said in an interview that she had no idea about Jpop, that she knows very little about the genre and culture. This is very ironic considering the fact that SOPHIE's music is inherently Jpop but I like this idea of representing something you have no knowledge about. To explain a book that one has never read.

Wow, very curious. What are your favorite Jpop albums?

Good question, I really don't know but I can recommend great albums. I would say Ayumi Hamasaki's Loveppears, it's a Jpop classic, and a bestseller, the beats are excellent, it has beautiful soul touching tracks. For me, this album is true Jpop. Still, all Jpop is Jpop. But it is like a sensation like of amazement, it is not a decision it is a climatic experience were one says "wow, this is Jpop(?)(!)." I profoundly respect Ayumi Hamasaki, it is a woman who followed her duty, persevered, she is sadly almost deaf but she still follows the duty and now she is the celebrity with the Highest Net Worth in Japan.

Pretty sad but inspiring, my respects to Ayumi. Besides 1999-2000 Jpop LPs which albums from our current era do you recommend ?

Twicetagram, it may be Kpop but I think Kpop is inherently Jpop even though Kpop seems to be more international oriented. Katy Perry said it when she watched the Likey MV "something important is happening here". Likey is a messianic track, the melody, the transitions, the structure, it feels big, it feels like "something important is happening here". I feel the same as Katy, I cannot justify it, I can just feel it. twicetagram is proof that there are things one cannot explain. In the end a picture says more than a thousand words.

What would you say is your biggest lesson in life?

There are two lessons. First is the A to Zay lesson or the "Buscar de Dios Lesson". We need to be more religious, less faith more religion, "do what God has destined for you". That's why I like the idea of "buscar de dios", we need to keep searching but simply by duty not by faith, and then in less than nothing you'll realize you found God.

I used to talk with Danny L Harle, he listened to my tracks, apparently he loved them, he has been always there since I started my previous project, but he never followed me, never gave me a like, something I desperately needed to get some boost, I never reached the 1k followers. But I'm not mad at him but on the contrary, I'm grateful for him not following me or liking any beat at soundcloud. Danny L Harle gave me a lesson of humility, we focus too much in getting approval from a producer when our duty is to produce bangers for normal people, for people to dance, to listen to it at the metro, at the gym session, at your bed while you read this interview.